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NASA: 47th Anniversary of Apollo 11

Apollo 11, the spaceflight that landed the first humans on the Moon, was launched on July 16, 1969. It was launched by a Saturn V. rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Merritt Island, Florida.

The journey to the moon had taken 3.5 days and the spacecraft stayed on the lunar surface for 2.5 hours. This mission made Neil Armstrong the first man to walk on the surface of the moon. Today is the 46th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and we have gathered some facts on the mission you should not miss.

Some facts on the Apollo 11 mission:

It was launched by a Saturn V rocket from the Kennedy Space Center in Merritt Island, Florida, on July 16. It was the 5th mission of NASA’s Apollo program
The spacecraft had three parts: Command Module with a cabin for the three astronauts; a Service Module which supported the Command Module with electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a Lunar Module for landing on the Moon
Command Module was the only part that landed back on Earth
After the launch the Saturn V separated from the spacecraft
After stepping onto the lunar surface, Armstrong described the event as “one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind.”
This goal was proposed in the year 1961 by the then U.S. President John F. Kennedy in a speech before the Presidential elections
It was suggested by the assistant manager for public affairs Julian Scheer that the crew should be less frivolous in naming their spacecraft because earlier, the crew of Apollo 10 had named their spacecraft Charlie Brown and Snoopy
Names like Snowcone and Haystack were chosen to name the spacecraft but the crew later decided to change them
The Apollo computers had less dispensation power than a cell phone
The Apollo’s Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles so NASA seated its VIPs three and half miles from the Launchpad
The spacecraft had landed on a flat area of the moon called the Sea of Tranquillity
It has been said there was only 30 seconds of fuel had left in the spacecraft when they landed on the lunar surface
Wine was the first drink that was consumed on the lunar surface
While three men left Earth, only two actually walked to the Moon. Collins was the module pilot so he had to stay in the spacecraft only
The astronauts walked around one kilometre on the surface. The foot imprints they left are still preserved there today
The astronauts had signed hundreds of autographs before leaving the Earth’s surface.